Image by Johan Bergmark

As we surge into the next wave of coronavirus cases, things are bad in America, and they’re bad in Sweden too. Over there, they just made a significant miscalculation—over here, we had a president who pretty much didn’t care who lived or died. 

Music has certainly helped get us through this crisis, and some of the best of it was made by those Stockholm indie stalwarts Peter Bjorn & John. Curiously enough, they rang in the new year of 2020 (now it’s an old, sick and tired year) with the new song ‘On the Brink’—a prescient title if ever. But they also impressively carried out a successful mini music festival, 36h INGRID, to launch us into our “Quarantine Spring”…which sadly carried on into summer and fall. 

But the arrival of a new single by PB&J is just what we needed to remind us that we do indeed have things to be thankful for. Our health is a big one, of course; but as previously mentioned, the significance of inspiring music at a time like this cannot be overstated. 

‘Gone Gone Gone’ is rife with melancholy beauty, opening sort of like The Smiths doing psychedelic folk, with prettily plucked guitars and winsome harmonies, so full of longing. It builds to a shiver-inducing sonic climax. Lyrically, it’s a poignant tale of the loss of something ineffable—”It’s one of those mornings / After one of those nights”—spot on for the current emotional zeitgeist.

“This chord progression is something that we’ve been messing around with for years,” explains Björn Yttling, “but at last we found a melody that clicked and made it into a little acoustic twelve-string gem. [The song] wonders what’s really important when everything comes to a head and the mind’s boggled with how extremely tiny we all are compared to the vastness of the universe. By the way, don’t miss John’s snare drum singing…a real rare spooky vibe.”

The track is taken from their upcoming EP Endless Play, due out 12/11.